Freedom from Negative Thinking

You can free yourself from negative thinking when you understand this simple perspective.

“Feelings of inferiority originate not so much from facts or experiences, but from our conclusions regarding facts and our evaluation of experiences.” ~ from Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Or in other words, it’s not what happens to us that affects us, but how we interpret what happens to us.

I read everyday. It keeps me grounded while feeding my curiosity and desire for growth.

I learned long ago that if you’re not growing, you’re contracting. There’s no stagnation. So, I choose to grow.

I’ve read passages like this before, but for some reason it stuck with me today. Maybe I need a reminder. Maybe you do, or we both do.

Negative Thinking Everyday

Lots of things happen everyday.

Image via Wikipedia

We interact with others, we read emails, articles and the news. And of course we have thoughts, thousands and thousands of thoughts.

In the book Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maltz states that over 95% of people deal with feelings of inferiority.

I like finding facts like this, because it reminds me that I’m not alone or abnormal for having thoughts of inferiority.

I’ve heard it said that; “to compare is to despair.”

I find that when I compare myself to someone else, it’s usually with a negative intention of proving something unfavorable about myself.

Over time, I have learned to catch myself quickly if this happens and remember that comparing myself to others is like comparing apples to brooms. Absolutely no relationship.

There’s no way I can know someone’s “story.” How they got to where they are? What price did they pay? What’s really going on behind the scenes of their public life?

Remembering this, I sit back appreciating the divine timing of things. My life is perfect, it’s just sometimes I think it’s not. Everything in my life happens for a reason and that reason serves me and helps me grow.

I know these things intellectually, but sometimes I stray in my thinking.

That’s why I like the above passage. It reminds me that it’s not the thoughts that are the issue, it’s what we do with them that matters.

• Having negative thoughts is not the problem
• Being the victim of a crime is not the problem
• Hearing “no” ten times in a row is not the problem

The problem is the meaning we give to these facts and the interpretation we give our experiences is the problem.

Understanding this, allows me creative license to find positives in every situation.

It allows me to recognize that sometimes good things don’t happen to allow great things to occur.

It allows me the freedom to assign positive interpretations where others would seek the comfort of being a victim.

For me it was liberating to discover this. For others I see the fear of realizing their crutch of victimhood is threatened

But it shouldn’t be scary.

When you get to this point, you’re free to interpret anything and everything in the most empowering way.

You’re free to get out of your own way and deliberately create the world, and its meaning, around you.

You’re truly free.

Related articles

• This Could Change the World (davidkoons.com)